A new University of Arizona study shows little or no evidence that medical marijuana is an effective treatment for anxiety, migraines, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, a finding that could hinder efforts to expand the allowable uses for the drug in Arizona.

News flash! Or not.

You see, the lead could also have been written to say “there is little or no evidence that medical marijuana is an ineffective treatment …”

As the story goes on to explain, researchers working on behalf of the state health department determined “most of the research was of little value in weighing the medicinal risks and benefits.”

“The key question for us is: Do the benefits outweigh the risks?” Will Humble, state health director told the Republic. “And there’s just not that much research in this area to help form our policy decisions.”

That might be a “dispute” in some headline writer’s mind. It’s inconclusiveness in mine.

The medicinal effectiveness of marijuana is of great interest to Colorado, which has become a national leader/laughingstock as MMJ has been used as a smokescreen for legalization.

Colorado’s law[2] allows medical marijuana for people suffering from “debilitating medical conditions.” Among those conditions is the hard-to-define “severe pain,” which accounts for 94 percent of all reported conditions among the nearly 100,000 Coloradans in the registry, according to state officials[3].

Statistics like that make you understand the need for definitive research — not just sensational headlines.